Rapids Team Up to Fight Hunger

COMMERCE CITY CO (Friday October 24) – Ever wonder how you can make a difference in peoples' lives with 30000 pounds of chicken? The Colorado Rapids Community Care Foundation in conjunction with Lift Up America Food Bank of the Rockies and Tyson Chicken found out a few days ago!

This Tuesday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park the Rapids Foundation led an effort to donate 30000 pounds of frozen chicken courtesy of Tyson Foods to 30 pre-selected non-profit agencies as an effort to fight hunger and promote nutrition in the community.

Rapids Managing Director Jeff Plush spoke to assembled media members at the event to help launch the filling of multiple trucks to help disperse the donations across the Denver metro area.

"The global nature of our sport has given us the opportunity to not only travel around the world but also to attract players from around the world Plush said. "As a result of that one of the things we've come to realize is that no matter where you're from hunger is a problem. And it's not just a problem in developing nations it's a problem here in the USA here in Colorado. Part of the mission of the Rapids Foundation is to eliminate hunger and we are glad to have our players and staff helping with this distribution here today."

"Our partnership and team spirit between these great organizations have a tremendous impact said Dave Hannah CEO of Lift Up America. "It is truly inspirational to see so many entities coming together with such a noble goal in mind."

Dick Bond president and CEO of Tyson Foods added "Tyson is dedicated to helping families in Denver who are struggling in these tough economic times. We also want to encourage other companies and individuals to identify ways they can share resources and make an impact in the fight against hunger."

The Colorado Rapids Community Care Foundation is the official 501c(3) non-profit Foundation of the team. The Rapids Foundation builds strong healthy kids. The goals of the Rapids Foundation are to eliminate child hunger and provide positive youth development opportunities in underserved communities.

Lift Up America founded in 2004 works with professional and college sports teams and local nonprofit agencies to provide the gifts of food sight hearing hope and comfort to our nation’s less fortunate. Lift Up America through sponsors provides more than $25 million in hearing aids helping approximately 26000 people in need of prescription eyeglasses delivers 10 million meals and over $40 million in scholarships to the less fortunate across America.

Food Bank of the Rockies a non-profit organization administers more than 1000 hunger-relief programs in Northern Colorado including Metro Denver and the entire state of Wyoming. In its first 30 years FBR has provided nearly 330 million pounds of food to member agencies which translates to more than 250 million meals for people in need and continues to feed more that 312000 people annually.

Tyson Foods Inc. since 2000 has been a leader in the fight against hunger. The company is actively engaged in food donation events and fundraising activities year-round to benefit those in need. The protein given by Tyson today will provide more than 120000 meals to local families in need. Last year alone Tyson donated nearly 9 million pounds of protein to Feeding America.

For more details on the efforts of the Rapids Foundation to fight hunger and promote healthy lifestyles call the Foundation at (303) 727-3572 or click here.